Two Aboriginal mothers have settled a claim against the New South Wales Police after police allegedly subjected their children, who were on bail, to more than 200 home checks over 20 months — often in the middle of the night.
Megan* and Joanne* alleged that, over 18 months, NSW Police visited their regional NSW homes 153 times in one case and 59 times in the other. Many of the visits allegedly occurred between midnight and 4 am.
They argued the visits were unlawful because there were no court-ordered bail conditions allowing police to conduct home checks.
Two of Megan's three sons, aged 11 and 13 at the time, were on bail after being passengers in a stolen car. They had no significant criminal history, and the court had not authorised home checks.
The Justice and Equity Centre (JEC), which represents the two mothers, took the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that the police visits were unlawful because there was no court-ordered bail condition authorising home checks.
On Friday, three weeks before the trial was due to begin, the JEC said the trespass cases had been settled on "confidential terms".
Megan said she wanted accountability from police for "what they've done to my young fellas and other young fellas".
"I'm glad it's over now," she said in a statement.
"After starting the case, our interactions with police completely changed. Over the past couple of months, I've barely heard from them. And it seems to have changed how they're interacting with other Aboriginal people and with non-Aboriginal people. I haven't heard of them doing bail checks the same way.
"That was the whole point of doing this case."
Megan accepted police have a job to do, but argued parents also have a responsibility to look after their children. She said while her eldest son is now able to drive around with his "head held high", knowing he won't be "randomly" pulled over, "he's still shaking in fear about what they could do".
"They've already done the damage, and it will take a lot for my boys to start trusting police again," Megan said.
"It'll take a long time before our people start trusting police again. Because they're the law, they can do whatever they want. And they've already broken that trust with Aboriginal people."
A report released last year by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) found there is a "powerful argument that bail curfew and residential compliance checks which involve entry onto private property cannot be undertaken by the NSW Police Force in the absence of an enforcement condition fixed by a court".
Police argue they have an "implied licence" to visit a home for "proactive policing" purposes, unless it was revoked.
"The NSW Police Force has referred to legal advice, not shared with the Commission, from the NSW Solicitor General, as support for this position," the LECC said.
Kate Sinclair, a solicitor at the JEC, said the LECC report "should have sounded the alarm for NSW Police".
"It was immensely brave for our clients to stand up to NSW Police and demand accountability. They did it for their families and their communities and we respect their courage," the Dharug woman said.
"Evidence shows ongoing interactions with police are harmful for children and young people and build distrust in targeted communities. The law puts safeguards in place to avoid harassment by police and those safeguards must be respected."
A separate racial discrimination case brought by the JEC on behalf of one of the families is still before the Federal Court.
That case focuses on police practices that mean Aboriginal children on bail are much more likely than non-Aboriginal children to have police visit their homes.
Last year, an expert report commissioned by the JEC found NSW Police disproportionately target Aboriginal children and young people through "bail compliance checks".
Based on data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the report showed Indigenous young people were 11.7 per cent more likely than non-Indigenous peers to be checked by police within the first 30 days of bail.
The likelihood of that pattern occurring by chance was less than one in a thousand.
On average, Aboriginal children faced 42 per cent more checks and were more than twice as likely to experience "very frequent" monitoring. Nearly one in eight Aboriginal children were checked 12 or more times, compared with one in 20 non-Indigenous children.
Ms Sinclair said the "oppressive practice" of "disruptive and distressing home visits by police" was widespread across the state, with Megan and Joanne far from the only people subjected to it.
"It is the clear intention of the law that a court should decide if and when police can check on people at home while they are on bail," she said.
"We have argued for years that when police enter private property for these checks without court authorisation or a reasonable suspicion someone is breaching bail, they are trespassing."
* Pseudonyms have been used for Megan and Joanne for legal reasons.
